Amusement games and portable amusement games have included target triggered dousing assemblies for years, in the form of dunk tanks, water balloon bursting games, and the like.
A brief summary of prior art patents relating to the general field of water-based amusement includes U.S. Pat. No. 4,093,228—Water dumping target game, Filed: Jun. 27, 1977, Issued: Jun. 6, 1978; U.S. Pat. No. 4,702,480—Flushing booth target apparatus, Filed: Apr. 7, 1986, Issued: Oct. 27, 1987; U.S. Pat. No. 5,087,054—Amusement dunking apparatus, assigned to Dunk The Clown, Inc., Filed: Mar. 14, 1991, Issued: Feb. 11, 1992; U.S. Pat. No. 5,482,292—Dumping toy, Filed: Jan. 30, 1995, Issued: Jan. 9, 1996; U.S. Pat. No. 5,634,642—Water dumping game with adjustable target, Filed: Jul. 1, 1996, Issued: Jun. 3, 1997; U.S. Pat. No. 5,848,793—Water game, Filed: Aug. 22, 1997, Issued: Dec. 15, 1998; U.S. Pat. No. 5,855,372—Water target game, Filed: May 11, 1998, Issued: Jan. 5, 1999; U.S. Pat. No. 5,992,853—Game with timed water release, Filed: Mar. 2, 1998, Issued to Elliot A. Rudell Nov. 30, 1999; U.S. Pat. No. 6,102,404—Target triggered dousing assembly, Filed: Apr. 8, 1999, Issued: Aug. 15, 2000; U.S. Pat. No. 6,264,201—Water balloon game, Filed: Aug. 4, 2000, Issued: Jul. 24, 2001; U.S. Pat. No. 6,296,252—Water game systems and methods, Filed: Apr. 20, 2000, Issued: Oct. 2, 2001; and U.S. Pat. No. 7,316,400—Water pumping game apparatus, Filed: Nov. 13, 2006, Issued: Jan. 8, 2008.
Known amusement games and attractions of the type referenced above are highly one-sided in terms of participant control over the outcome of the game, as one participant launches the projectiles while the other participant simply awaits the possible outcome associated with the first participant's successful impact of a target.
Accordingly, there remains room for improvement in these types of games and attractions.